NCAA Football 2012: First Poll of the Season Exactly Why a Playoff Was Needed

On Thursday, the first college football poll of the season, The USA Today Coaches Poll, was released.

The poll is filled with teams who are either too high, too low, or who have no business in the poll altogether.

Let's start at the top.

LSU and Alabama are No.1 and No.2.

I get that they were voted into and played in the national title game last season. Did anyone watch that game?

If you did, you saw an Alabama team who four months later would be gutted by the NFL Draft soundly shutdown an LSU team with very little offense.

Now the USA Today coaches poll is telling me and you that 7 moths later, these are the top two teams in the nation?

Gimme a break.

Poll are all specualtion based on what you have returning vs. what teams are on your schedule. Given that, there is absolutley no reason for Southern Cal not to be No. 1.

They have arguably the top quarterback in the nation, lost very little from a team who probably would have played in and won the Rose Bowl had they not been on sanctions, and just signed arguably the Big Ten's most explosive running back (Silas Redd) away from Penn State.

Jumping down to No. 6, we have the Georgia Bulldogs, assuming their perennial role in the polls as a preseason national title contender, based what I can only assume is history and the conference they play in. How's that working out in Athens recently?

Michigan State sits at No. 13 in the nation. This seems a little high for a team who just lost the best quarterback they've had in over two decade.

Nebraska at No. 16? We last saw them losing a bowl game to a mediocre South Carolina squad who was without their best player. The Huskers lost their top 3 defensive players to the draft and added nothing on offense, but hey, it's Nebraska, right?

Stanford sits at No. 18 after losing Peyton Manning's heir apparent in Andrew Luck and what looks like a fourth Gronkowski brother in Coby Fleener. I don't buy it.

Last but not least, the annual crowning of Notre Dame. Did I miss where Michael Floyd left the Arizona Cardinals and returned to the Golden Dome? 

This may be the saddest preseason coaches poll I've seen in quite some time. It looks as if the people who voted did no research and voted based on what these teams did over the past couple of years with players who are no longer on their rosters. Pathetic.

Teams like Clemson, Virginia Tech, Arkansas and Kansas State will now have to work that much harder just to get in the BCS conversation.

At least when that playoff gets here, something will actually get settled on the field in college football.